Saturday, 21 July 2012

The Amazing Spider-Man was the subject of a lot of controversy when it was first announced. Fans were so looking forward to a Spider-Man 4 announcement, that when the news came that Spidey was getting 'rebooted' many were outraged. But they really shouldn't have been, because while The Amazing Spider-Man isn't my film of the summer, it's still just as entertaining - if not more so - than the original trilogy of films.

One of the main things that kept this movie from being a mess is the cast. Andrew Garfield delivers a fantastic performance as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, possibly even better than Tobey Maguire's just 5 years ago, but he's not the only star here. Emma Stone is also great, coming dangerously close to stealing the show as Peter's new love interest Gwen Stacey.

But a great hero cannot exist without a great villain, and Rhys Ifans more or less delivers on that side of things as Dr. Curt Connors, AKA The Lizard. It's easy to get caught up in how unrealistic a villain he is - what with Christopher Nolan's "gritty" Batman films all the rage at the minute - but to be honest I actually found him quite a believable character.
At the end of the day he's just a man who desperately wants to get his arm back, and in the process he...uh....turns into a giant lizard. The point is he's not as weird a villain as you might first expect, and seeing the way he tries to fight against his scaly alter-ego means there's a certain amount of sympathy to be felt for the character too.

But perhaps the best thing about this movie is the script. Those of you who have read Spider-Man comics will know that he's actually a pretty funny guy, but that side of him was rarely represented in the old films. Well, this film has it covered, there's a lot of funny moments in this movie, as well as a good mix of romance, tragedy and action to go along with it on the way to the final face-off. But, unfortunately, that's where this film falls short.

What a poser!

The problem is while this is - in my opinion at least - an improved origin story, it's still the same one. Peter gets bitten by a spider, chaos ensues. It's nothing we haven't seen before, and that really becomes a problem later in the movie seeming as the biggest action set-piece is shown in all the trailers - meaning anyone who's seen them will get to a certain point and then just know how everything will end.

As you can imagine, this makes things feel a little less epic.

But, it doesn't make it a bad film. In fact, I'd say this film rivals all the previous one's in terms of sheer quality, it's just a shame it's missing that key element that makes it unforgettable. Great fun, but whether you need to rush out to see it depends on how much you love Spider-Man....and whether you've seen the trailers.